Think About
Play
Prompt One
Do a handstand or similarly ridiculous physical activity in a public place.
How land can you “hold it”.
Is it really you that is upside down or inside out?
Prompt Two
Choose three random mailing addresses.
Send each one a story of a time when you helped someone.
Decorate the package and include something personal, like a recipe, or some seeds they can plant.
Ask them to write back (if safe, i.e. a P.O. Box or impersonal mailing address) and share a similar story to provide inspiration for your art, and include a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
Prompt Three
Perform / make a self-portrait.
Document.
Prompt Four
Select an occupation that you’ve never had.
Imagine a task that one in this occupation might do. i.e. shoveling, scanning products, chopping a tree
Perform a version of this gesture repetitively until it now longer has or holds the same meaning.
Dig Deeper
Laura Aguilar, Nowness
Her gaze is unfazed but not exploitative; tender but not sentimental
Ways of Seeing Episode I, John Berger
A BAFTA award-winning BBC series with John Berger, which rapidly became regarded as one of the most influential art programmes ever made. In the first programme, Berger examines the impact of photography on our appreciation of art from the past.
The Oppositional Gaze
An audio excerpt from bell hook’s The Oppositional Gaze